Talk:Yasunori Kato
I'm quite impressed at how much this page has been built up. I was only familiar with the Doomed Megalopolis anime myself and never realized Kato's story continued for so long afterwards. Well done! Devo DrakeFox (talk) 08:01, September 8, 2012 (UTC) Thanks! Since Doomed Megalopolis and Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis were the only adaptations of the story released in the West, many Americans are unaware of just how vast the original story is (the original book itself is about 3000 pages), or how many sequels and spinoffs it produced. Doomed Megalopolis is only a piece of the story. The original novel, a groundbreaking work, reinterprets about 90 years of Tokyo's history, which is a lot more time than the anime or film allows. PS: I'm the author of the original Wiki pages for Teito Monogatari and Yasunori Kato, so the work I cross posted over from there is mine. PPS: If you're interested, there's currently a Facebook page petitioning to get the original novel translated. If you would like to read it, Google TRANSLATE TEITO MONOGATARI INTO ENGLISH! and support us! Simfusui (talk) 1:22 AM, September 9, 2012 (PT) I might just do that. I'll have to give the Teito Monogatari wiki a look too. PS: Have you seen either of the English dubs of Doomed Megalopolis? I've seen both and I think ADV's DVD dub is horrible compared to Manga's old VHS dub. I wish someone could make a DVD version with the original Manga dub, with the British voices and all the Japanese chanting which ADV, in their negligible wisdom, decided to translate... poorly. FYI, I'm not American. I'm British. :P Devo DrakeFox (talk) 13:04, September 8, 2012 (UTC) Oops! My apologies! I should have said "western viewers" as, living in America, I sometimes tend to forget just how much of the rest of the English speaking world is unaware of this series' existence. I guess it's understandable though: it is a Japanese series dealing with some very Japanese-centric subjects, so I think distributors naturally assume there's no market in the English speaking world for it. I also wanted to thank you too for starting this page and building it up with the amount of info you did! Your heavy contributions were a very good start! To tell the truth, I was surprised to even find such a page existed given how obscure DM and its franchise are in the West. Regarding the English dubs, I haven't seen the Manga VHS dub, but I did see the Streamline (ADV) North American English dub years ago. The performances and dialogue weren't too bad iirc. What was reprehensible was how many cultural terms and concepts they deleted to "simplify" the story for Western audiences. I understand they did this for marketing reasons, but it removes a lot of the depth from the original story. The biggest example I like to use is Hirai's letter from Episode 2 regarding Kato's origin. This is Streamline's version: "Before I set my spirit to join the Heavenly Emperors I must set down some details about our enemy that may have eluded Kamo and his investigations. I believe the demon Kato was born in the province of Kyshuyu. As Kamo knows, that province was also the birthplace of the Tsuchimikado, the Emperor of Dirt. According to the ancient texts many holy men were buried in Kyshuyu. It was hallowed ground said by many to be an enchanted land--a place of great and powerful magic. But there came a time when the living turned their backs on the dead. The people of Kyshuyu had grown so accustomed to their blessed state that they lost sight of their sacred duty. Blinded by vanity, they came to believe themselves responsible for their good fortune. The graves of the holy ones were left; their prayers forgotten, their rituals no longer performed and Kyshuyu became a barren place. A land poisoned by the curses of those who lay beneath it. They say that a strange hermit and an outcast from a nearby monastery was for years wandering this region long after it was shunned by living men. Whether or not this was Kato himself, I believe he is the living incarnation of those ancient curses; an instrument of vengeance for the forgotten dead of Kyshuyu. Their immortal hatred that spark the fires of the furnace of his twisted soul." Here's the original Japanese version: ""Lieutenant Kato’s birthplace was RYUJIN VILLAGE in Wakayama prefecture. According to the legend, Ryujin Village was also the birthplace of SEIMEI ABE, and at the same time, the TSUCHIMIKADO FAMILY came from there originally. Ryujin Village is a holy place which is famous among people. The one who founded the place was the ancestor of asceticism, EN NO OZUNU. You can go to the back of the forbidden place, MT. KOYA, from the village, therefore, the legend says that KOHBO-DAISHI KUKAI received a message from NANDA, THE DRAGON KING, in a dream and opened the place. There is no Kato family in Ryujin Village. There is no Kato in the ancient documents. However, this village is close to the place where ascetics have trained, and there were many rumors in that village about strangers who sometimes appeared in the nearby mountains and used magic. I believe Kato is the descendant of the ancient people who never obeyed the founder, and he inherited both the curse and the magic of the KIBI. The only other key to solving the mystery of Yasunori Kato, is the curse. That is all." Compare the latter to the former. A LOT was deleted and inexpicably changed around, including the notion that Kato is the incarnation of the curse of the "ancient people", the native tribes who inhabited the Japanese islands prior to the coming of the Yamato court (hence he's probably not "Japanese"). Also, why mention Emperor Tsuchimikado but not the Tsuchimikado Family (which is the family where Hirai descends from)? I hope the Manga VHS dub didn't delete so much, but I'm guessing they had to simplify stuff to sell it to a Western audience, right? In the end though, I think the only way to get the original story as intended by the original creators of the show is to watch this is in Japanese. Simfusui (talk) 19:43, September 8, 2012 (UTC)Simfusui (talk) 1:22 AM, September 9, 2012 (PT) Hey, kicking off this page was a pleasure. Frankly, I wasn't expecting it to be expanded upon but I'm glad to see that someone out there cares about the franchise enough to build this up. And yeah, the VHS dub was quite different to the Streamline DVD dub. All the voices had British accents (which I found surprising since most of Manga's voiceovers were American. Kato himself had a wonderfully malevolent voice (provided by Peter Marinker), much more so than his Streamline voice, I think. Other than that, the first English translation does match the original Japanese more closely. And you know those bits when characters are chanting as they're casting spells and whatnot? The first English version didn't waste time coming up with some stupid, horribly inaccurate translation, the actors just recited the original Japanese chants. I considered Doomed Megalopolis as one of my favourite animes growing up and I just found ADV's re-dub to be offensive. It's only saving grace is that ADV didn't put in a different soundtrack. I love DM's soundtrack, if ADV had taken that away too, I wouldn't want to live on this planet anymore... Devo DrakeFox (talk) 20:04, September 8, 2012 (UTC)